


More Than Best Friends (Mega Best Friends?)

by SyrupLime



Category: 9-1-1 (TV), 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Eddie and Chris mentioned, M/M, Pre-Slash, TK helps Buck realize his feelings for Eddie, cause he's a good friend, i got a headcold and it triggered this, no beta we die like my braincells have tonight, only for like two seconds though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29994450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyrupLime/pseuds/SyrupLime
Summary: “Well, I’m sorry if I was a little preoccupied with the whole suddenly liking guys thing to notice my giant crush on my best friend!”TK just snorted again. “Crush? Buck, I hate to have to tell you your own feelings, but you’re in love with the guy.”“...WHAT?!”Or TK is a good friend and helps Buck figure some things out
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & TK Strand, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 11
Kudos: 336





	More Than Best Friends (Mega Best Friends?)

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, I wrote this at midnight with congestion, a headache, and a compulsion for some Buck/TK Brotp. I also threw in a little 'Bobby and Owen knew each other before they were captains' for fun. Might write something with the four of them that's like "The Captains and Their Sons" or something. 
> 
> I might write a sequel if the inspiration hits but as it stands, I like the ending and plan to keep it as is.

“I didn’t feel like going in alone and making it awkward so I asked Taylor-”   
  
“Wait wait, who’s Taylor?”   
  
Buck paused from wiping down the kitchen counter at the station. He had his phone tucked between his shoulder and his ear as he went through his chores, TK listening as he explained his week. These weekly calls between the two of them had started about a week after the 118 left Texas - Buck had called TK at midnight freaking out over his delayed bisexual freak out. TK had talked him down and since then, their calls were almost as frequent as Buck’s talks with his therapist. He hadn’t realized how much he needed a friend outside of work until he had been able to talk about his life with someone who hadn’t lived it with him. He had a feeling it was helping TK too, at least, he was still picking up his calls.    
  
“Oh right. She’s um... It’s kind of complicated but she’s a news reporter, the 118 saved her on a call and we hooked up a few times, and then I saw her again at the robber on the roof thing.”    
  
“Ah,” TK’s voice came back a little delayed. Buck wasn’t surprised, he was also in the middle of a shift. “So you asked an ex-fling to go on a double date with you?”    
  
Buck groaned. “Now, you say it like that and it sounds like a bad idea.”   
  
“Well was it?”   
  
The blond’s silence was telling and a snort came from over the line. “You should’ve called me, dude. I am well-versed in awkward romantic situations.”    
  
“Oh, you are aren’t you?”    
  
“Yep,” TK popped the ‘p’ and Buck shook his head, mindlessly returning to his cleaning.    
  
“I’ll make sure to do that next time. Can I get back to my story now?”   
  
TK grunted in refusal. “Just one last thing. Why didn’t you ask Eddie to go with you?”    
  
Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. TK always seemed to manage to bring him up in their conversations - Buck refused to think about how much he talked about the man himself - and Buck didn’t get it. “I can’t ask my best friend to go with me to dinner with my roommate and his girlfriend. Besides, he’s dating the vice principal, Ana.”    
  
“Her? Haven’t they only gone on like three dates? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count as dating until the fifth,” his tone was teasing but there was an undercurrent of something Buck doubted he would be able to name until he knew TK better.    
  
Still, his words struck something wrong inside of him and he ducked his head. “He um. He introduced her to Christopher.”   
  
“Wait really?” TK sounded shocked. Buck was a little too. “How did Christopher take it?”   
  
Buck laughed humorlessly. “He used Eddie’s phone to order an Uber to my place.”    
  
TK was quiet for so long after that that Buck pulled the phone back to make sure he was still on the line. He pressed it back to his ear and said questioningly, “TK? You there?”    
  
“Oh sorry dude, yeah yeah. Just… he went to  _ your  _ place?”    
  
“Yeah, crazy right?” Buck was touched Chris trusted him so much but still couldn’t wrap his head around it.   
  
“No, actually,” TK replied, to Buck’s surprise. “It makes perfect sense. Think about it, when you’re mad at one person, you go to the other.”   
  
“I- what?” Buck blinked in confusion. Was he going crazy or did TK just imply he was Chris’s  _ other parent _ ? “Chris isn’t my kid.”    
  
Even though it was the truth, it still hurt. TK made a noise and somehow he could tell the younger man was rolling his eyes, even without seeing him.    
  
“Buck, I’ve been talking with you for how many weeks now? You talk about Christopher the same way Tommy talks about her kids. Utterly smitten and protective.”   
  
Buck opened and closed his mouth a few times like a gaping fish. He tried to deny it but… a small part of him couldn’t help but ask if he was right. He  _ loved _ Christopher and he knew the kid loved him back. He knew he was  _ Eddie’s _ kid and that was never going to change but. Sometimes he felt like Buck’s too.    
  
Before Buck could think of someone to reply, there were voices in the background of the call. He heard some shuffling and multiple voices, letting him know he had been put on speaker.    
  
“Hey, Buckley,” a voice Buck recognized as Captain Owen Strand’s came through the phone. “You finally accepting my offer to come down here.”    
  
“Ah, you know I would love to, but my family’s here in LA,” Buck said, just like every time. It was a running joke with them - though some days it felt less like a joke and more and more like a “We’re there if you need us” from the Strands.    
  
“I completely understand. But hey, you’ll say hi to Nash for me won’t ya?”    
  
“Of course. Actually, he told me you still owe him from that bet…?” Buck wasn’t completely sure about Owen and Bobby’s relationship. Just that they had met at the academy, lost touch, and then reconnected after the whole wildfire incident.    
  
He could hear TK snicker as Owen protested loudly. Buck chuckled when he noticed Bobby himself coming up the stairs, eyebrows raised at Buck’s lack of tidying up. Shit, he forgot what he was supposed to be doing.    
  
“Uh, I gotta go, you should talk to him about it. Let’s talk later okay, and TK I’ll send you my pancake recipe.”   
  
“Great thank you. We’ll talk later man.” They hung up just as Bobby was approaching Buck. He shoved his phone in his pocket as Bobby’s eyebrow didn’t lower.   
  
“Who were you talking to?” His captain asked, sounding too innocuous for the undertone of the question.    
  
“Uh, the Strands. Owen says hi, by the way, and that he definitely did not lose that bet,” he gives him what he hopes is an innocent shrug Bobby looks less suspicious and more teasing. He always was where Owen was involved it seemed.    
  
“I guess I’ll have to call him myself then. Were he and TK not on shift?”   
  
“Nah they were. It was just time for…” Buck trailed off, not sure what to call his weekly talks with TK. Life updates? Staying in touch? One bro helping out another through his sexuality crisis at 29 that turned into a Thing? “TK called me.” He finally settled on since it was the truth.    
  
Bobby gave him another look before nodding. “Well, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your work.” He said pointedly. Buck quickly nodded.   
  
“Yep, no, no interfering here,” he gave him a grin and went back to cleaning. He could feel Bobby’s amused shake of the head before he turned to head back downstairs. Buck sighed quietly and sent TK his promised pancake recipe before getting back to work.    
  
***   
  
It wasn’t until he was back home that the content of his conversation with TK actually hit him.   
  
He was getting home, not surprised to see Albert already passed out on the couch. Buck’s shift had ended at 6 am which meant Al had already been back home for two hours. The blond was going to take a shower and follow his lead when all of a sudden it came back to him.   
  
TK said Buck was Christopher’s other parent.    
  
There was a lot to unpack about that - though he was steadily ignoring the small part of him that felt validated - but the thought that slammed to the front of his brain was ‘ _ What about Eddie? _ ’    
  
Of course, TK never said Chris wasn’t also Eddie’s kid and it was absurd to think otherwise. No, the reason that thought was at the forefront of Buck’s worries was that if they were both Chris’s parents, what did it make them? Do best friends usually raise kids together? What would Buck even know about that?   
  
‘ _ If Chris is my kid, does that make Eddie my partner? _ ’ he thought and woah, he was not prepared for the wave of…  _ something  _ that accompanied it. Eddie had been called his partner before - he was his partner at work, people regularly called them partners in crime - but it felt different. Equal in significance but different in meaning.    
  
And what the hell did  _ that  _ mean?   
  
It was almost 8 am in Austin and Buck knew TK had a shift at 10 today so he didn’t even think before pulling out his phone and pressing the now familiar number.    
  
“Wow, back-to-back days, is this Veronica thing really bugging you or what?” TK asked as soon as he picked up the phone sounding blessedly awake and clearheaded.   
  
The same could not be said about Buck, however, as instead of a greeting he blurted out, “Am I in love with Eddie?”    
  
There were a few moments of silence before TK lost it and loud laughing could be heard over line. Which, in Buck’s opinion, was not helpful, thanks. He was having a bisexual - or was it gay because Eddie was a guy? No, Buck was a bisexual and he didn’t become less bisexual by freaking out over a guy - freakout over his best friend dammit!   
  
It took a while but eventually, TK got control over himself. “You’re just now finding that out? What have we been discussing the past few months?”    
  
‘ _ Months? Wait, was this why TK always let him ramble about Eddie to him? Also if it was so obvious, why didn’t he tell him?! _ ’    
  
Buck voiced his complaints which only seemed to make TK more amused. “Excuse me for thinking that you suddenly realizing you were bisexual at 29 had something to do with your ridiculously hot and tactile best friend whose kid you are half-raising.”    
  
Again with the parent comments. TK was going to make BUck cry at this rate.   
  
“Well, I’m sorry if I was a little preoccupied with the whole suddenly liking guys thing to notice my giant crush on my best friend!”    
  
Oh.  _ Oh _ .    
  
Did he just admit to liking Eddie? His painfully straight best friend Eddie? Well shit.    
  
But instead of sounding surprised, TK just snorted again. “Crush? Buck, I hate to have to tell you your own feelings, but you’re in love with the guy.”   
  
“...WHAT?!”    
  
There was a sound painfully close to a wince from the other side of the line. “I’m going out on a limb here and saying you didn’t know that either.”   
  
No. No, Buck certainly hadn’t known that. At least, he doesn’t think he did…    
  
“What am I going to do?” He asked, sounding sad and a little hopeless even to his own ears. It was just like him to fall in love with someone so tragically unavailable it wasn’t even funny.    
  
TK sobered a bit and let out a sigh. “I don’t know man. Sorry, I wish I did.”   
  
Buck slowly sat down on his bed. He doesn’t even remember when he had stood up to pace around the loft. Okay, so a few things to digest here. He was apparently in love with his straight and taken best friend who he was also helping raise a kid with and he was very likely to be the last to know.    
  
Seriously.  _ Shit _ .    
  
“Look, if it makes you feel any better,” TK said slowly. Buck sat up a little straighter. “I think he likes you too.”   
  
“What?” He blinked at nothing. “But- but he’s not- he has a girlfriend.”   
  
“Compulsory heterosexuality is a bitch, I’ll give you that,” Buck knew what that was from their talks, recognized it as something he had likely done in the past, but didn’t really understand it. “But from the way you talk about him, and from what Marjan tells me his Instagram looks like, the only reason you aren’t married is that neither of you bothered to notice you could be.”    
  
That… huh.   
  
“Are you sure?”   
  
“Pretty sure. I will admit my gaydar has been off a little bit as of late, but you two already act, look, and talk like a couple. Now you just need to acknowledge it.”   
  
TK made it sound so easy. And he knew, even if Eddie didn’t feel the same, he wouldn’t disregard Buck’s feelings - which was the thing he was most scared of about coming out. It might take them a while for him to  _ understand _ them but they would be out there in the open. The only thing was-   
  
“He’s still dating Ana,” Buck said, voice sounding surer. “He just got Christopher to accept it. I can’t- I won’t take that away from him.”   
  
The line was quiet for a bit before TK spoke again. “Hey, no, I get it, man. Just figured you should know.”   
  
Buck nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate it, TK. Thank you.”    
  
“Anytime, it’s what I’m here for.” He could hear the grin in the brunette’s voice. “You’re gay sherpa remember?”   
  
Buck laughed, feeling lighter and heavier all at the same time. “Yeah, I remember. Seriously though. Thank you, for everything. It means a lot.”   
  
“Whenever you need me,” TK assured. He wasn’t sure how the Strands had picked up on it but they seemed to know Buck didn’t have a lot of people he felt he could rely on, even now. “Hey look, I hate to leave you, but Carlos is getting off shift soon-”   
  
“Yeah, go go, it’s fine,” Buck was quick to reassure him. And it  _ was _ fine even it didn’t feel like it. “Go be with your boyfriend.”   
  
“I will. Hey, you be safe alright?”   
  
“Yeah, I will. Thanks again.”   
  
“No problem. Talk to you later.”   
  
“Yeah later,” Buck waited for the line to go dead before pulling his phone away from his ear. It was getting closer to 8 am. Buck could crash out now or he could drive to the Diaz’s in time to take Christopher to school.    
  
Buck was out the door a few minutes later, bed unslept in and the apartment still ringing with the conversation from that morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Lmk what you thought, this show has really helped me get out of my writing funk. Come yell at me on Tumblr (i-am-church-the-cat).


End file.
